The Surge

On Sept. 11, Formula One (F1) welcomed a new circuit called the MADRING in Madrid, Spain. The track features a total circuit length of 5.414 kilometers, including 22 turns, 57 laps and a race distance of 308.399 kilometers. Though the weekend of Sept. 11 was the MADRING circuit’s F1 debut, it would not be the first time the city of Madrid hosted a Grand Prix, nor will it be the last. 

The circuit starts with a short run of about 200 meters down to the first turn before a right-hander takes the drivers down to the third corner. This leads them to the strongest straight of the track, where their speed becomes immense until a heavy braking zone, followed by an elevation change and blind apex at Turn 8. After that is where the street section of the circuit comes to an end and goes into the permanent segment of the track. A Chicane guides the drivers to the corner called La Monumental, a banked curve with 24% gradient. The curve paves the way to a series of flat out corners where precision will be a driver’s best friend since the walls begin to close in. The track becomes a technical section leading to a tight final corner and back to the start/ finish straight. The circuit features only two Straight Mode Zones and one Overtake activation zone which is along Turn 22 heading onto the start/finish straight. 

Before the race weekend, it was unclear to the public how the cars would react to the track. A Formula 3 test featuring 19 red flags over the course of the two days, however, revealed some key information about the course such as Turn 7’s reputation for being a perilous spot.

The weekend started with Free Practice One on Friday, where Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team driver George Russell finished first, followed by teammate Kimi Antonelli. Russell was nearly three-tenths clear of Antonelli as the Ferrari teammates took third and fourth. 

Free Practice Two was crucial for every team to test which tires were working best with the track. Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman were the first to head out, leading the queue. Sergio “Checo” Perez was the first driver to encounter a problem with his new steering wheel, while both alpines were stuck in their garage for the first 15 minutes. Arvid Lindblad was the first driver of the weekend to crash when coming into Turn 13, he lost the rear and hit the barriers, bringing an early end to his day and pausing the session. Practice Two’s pace was ultimately set by Antonelli, who put up an unbeatable lap time of 1:33.662.

Practice session three was monotonous, other than a thirty minute delay and Lewis Hamilton’s head-on collision at the final corner Antonelli claimed another first-place finish during the session.

For the qualifying hour, Lando Norris swooped in, taking the pole position with a time of 1:31.824 and beating Antonelli by 0.011 seconds, while Max Verstappen qualified third at 1:31.964. Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth after briefly holding provisional pole, then followed by Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto and finally Arvid Lindblad in tenth. The Audi cars showed a strong pace, but both missed Q3, while home heroes Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were both eliminated in Q1. Bearman and Stroll did not race due to problems with their cars. 

The biggest day of the weekend, indisputably, was Sunday, race day. At the start of the race, polesetter Lando Norris led despite early wheel-to wheel-racing from Antonelli. The race shifted dramatically, however, when Stroll’s retirement deployed a Virtual Safety Car (VSC). Mercedes and Red Bull took advantage of the VSC and pitted,saving them time, whereas when Norris went into pit,the race returned to green flag conditions and he suffered an extremely slow seven-second stop. Due to the amount of cars pitting, Leclerc took the lead for 48 laps before finally being forced to pit. Verstappen ultimately took second and Norris was close behind in third while Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Russell. Hamilton and three others retired due to break issues.  It was current championship leader, 20-year-old Italian race driver Antonelli who claimed the win, making the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix his eighth win of the season, extending his lead to 81 points ahead of Russell and being the first driver to win on the MADRING Circuit . 

Overall, the race was highly criticized and considered to be underwhelming, where drivers like Garbriel Bortoleto said it was a “faster Monaco, but as boring as Monaco.” The Grand Prix also had a lack of overtakes where multiple drivers admitted they “almost fell asleep” during the race.